


Three times in darkness and once in the light

by CajunSpice714



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Finn is a nurse, KyloBen is an attending physician, Rey and Poe are doing Residencies, hospital!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 14:15:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14570778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CajunSpice714/pseuds/CajunSpice714
Summary: Over the span of her two-year Residency, Doctor Rey Johnson encounters Doctor Ren three times in Darkness and once in the light.





	Three times in darkness and once in the light

The first time that they meet is in darkness. 

 

He’s the on-call surgeon, halfway through his seventy two hour call shift. His breath and smoke clouds the air around him as he exhales. It’s cold, really cold, and he has just lost someone, a child he had never met after a wreck had shoved metal and glass into the stomach, the result of a drunk driver. He never lets the attending nurses and other surgeons see him cry, but he does. Every surgery that fails to save a life hits him hard in the chest and sends him wallowing into a miserable state of heartbreak and anger that sends him into tears that he hides from the world behind the brick wall in the cold night and a cigarette he steals from a locker in the break room. He knows Poe won’t mind.

 

She’s been working here for just under 6 months, the small ray of sunshine, full of hope and happiness that lights up the ER. Her hair is in a short braid down the middle of her back, a sign that she’s just begun the first of her own three-day run. Her hours are broken up and she will get to go home at the end of her shift, but she never waivers, her energy fueled by sugary coffee and her co-workers who share cat videos and make silly snapchats throughout the night when life isn’t busy busy busy.

 

Tonight, however, is the first time she’s ever been tasked with seeking out “Supreme Leader Ren”. She’s heard rumors, however, she has never met the man himself. Poe tells her where to find him, but neglects to tell her that no one ever actually goes out to get him but usually pages him to come when he is available. Taking a cup of black coffee with her, Rey seeks out the smoking area that only staff can access. 

 

Stepping out into the moonlit darkness is a change from the hall and it takes a moment for eyes to adjust once the door slams with an alarming bang. She hears a soft sniffle, and then a growl and she frowns turning to face the noise. Her eyes find the tall figure in dark scrubs and she steps forwards offering the coffee to him. “Dr. Ren, you’re needed in surgery.” Her voice is soft but confident but she can feel the way his eyes bore into her. Heat pools in her stomach at the gleam in his eye as he stalks over and accepts the coffee. Their fingers touch and she gasps at the feeling of his skin against her’s, mouth going dry as she tries to think of something to say. He steps away, pulling her name badge from her lapel to read it in the dim moonlight. He lets it snapback and clears his throat “Thank you, Ms. Jackson.” He states before turning to walk away, leaving her in the all-encompassing darkness. 

 

“Johnson.” She calls out into the darkness and she hears his footsteps pause. “M...My name is Doctor Rey Johnson.” 

 

He snickers and looks over his shoulder, illuminated by the light from the door. “Sure.” The door slams shut behind him and she’s alone, frozen on the spot, irritation coursing through her veins. She lingers longer than she should, her pager beeping loudly until she answers it and heads back inside to attend to her patients in the ER once more.

 

* * *

 

 

The second time they meet is in darkness is brief.

 

She has just finished her first year of residency and she’s seventeen hours into her on-call shift. She stumbles into the room, gasping as she jarred her shoulder on the door and tries to find the light switch that will illuminate the area around her so she can see where she’s going. The door automatically clicks shut behind her without a touch. 

 

She’s exhausted, her chest hurts from the scene she had just witnessed and all she wants to do is sleep off the memories of a mother’s loud sobs as she explains there is nothing they can do for the fifteen-year-old who had overdosed on heroin at her father’s house. The memory of the haunted look on the mother’s face sends Rey tumbling to the ground with a loud sob. She presses one hand to her face and the other to her chest as she sobs hard loud heaves of sorrow.

 

The light is on and warm hands are on her and a moment later she’s up off the floor, sitting on a folding chair with hands unknotting her hair and pressing through it as she hiccups and sobs into his shoulder. She blinks up at the person comforting her, thinking it’s Poe or Finn, but comes eye to eye with Dr. Ren. She pulls back a bit but is unable to get the tears to stop rolling down her cheeks. “I know it’s unprofessional… I’m sorry I woke you. I thought…” 

 

“Hush.” His voice is different than the last time they had met and she sniffles but goes silent. “It’s okay to feel what you feel. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t feel empathy for other people. We would be sociopaths. It’s okay to feel what you feel.” His voice is low and dark and settles a warmth around Rey and she can’t help but nod closing her eyes tight as his hands stroke through her hair and rub her back. As soon as her sobs stop her pager goes off again. 

 

“I… I don’t think I can do this.” She whispers to him and he moves away from her. She hates the loss of his hands but he resumes touching her hair a moment later, braiding it down her neck and back before securing it. He offers her a box of tissues and a bottle of water. 

 

“You can and you will.” He states firmly and she nods wiping her face and blowing her nose.

 

“How do I look?” She asks sniffling a bit and rubbing her nose with another tissue.

 

Dr. Ren scrutinizes her for a minute, looking her up and down before focusing on her face. “Like a beautiful Doctor ready to save some lives.” Rey offers him a thankful smile and leaves to return to her duties making a note to find some way to thank him in the future.

 

* * *

  
  


The final time they meet in darkness is killer (literally).

She’s six months from finishing her residency and she hasn’t seen Dr. Ren in just as many months. She wakes with a startle as her pager and cell phone ring all at once. It’s the end of her shift, she has fifteen minutes left. She sits up and answers her phone first.

 

“Meet me outside, thirty-eight seconds.” She recognizes the dark voice but she doesn’t know how he has possibly gotten her number. The line goes dead and she frowns before checking her pager and clamors from the bed. 

 

Code Blue. ETA 30 Seconds. 

 

She shoves her feet into her shoes and tightens her ponytail before running from the room, cutting through the cafeteria to get into the receiving bay. She doesn’t have her lab coat or any of the proper equipment but she knows she’s going to be needed for this. There’s shouting all around her and it’s dizzying to find out that while he isn’t scheduled or on call, Dr. Solo is standing next to her suddenly, dressed in basketball shorts and a black t-shirt, his hair sticking up at all ends and his feet bare.

 

Things are shouted back and forth between many people including Poe and Dr. Ren and Rey pulls on gloves and takes over the respiratory assistance as a nurse takes over compressions from the paramedics. The curtain is pulled tight, blocking out the rest of the ER even though everything can still be heard. They move quickly and Rey forgets Dr. Ren’s presence for a while. IV fluids and medications are introduced and they try for more than half an hour to resuscitate the man under Rey’s hands. 

 

Glass shatters somewhere far off as Poe calls the time aloud to the room. Adrenaline is pumping through her veins as she steps back from sniffling while looking around the room. Dr. Ren is gone. Turning her attention to Poe she asks softly. “Who is this man?” She had never gotten the full report.

 

“It’s Ben’s… Dr. Ren’s father.” The air rushes from her lungs at Poe’s words and Rey backs slowly away from the scene pulling her gloves from her hands and tossing them in the trash before checking her watch. Her shift has been done for twenty minutes, but she knows she will have to write a report but she knows she has something more important to do first.

 

She checks the room he had comforted her, held her close for a brief moment in time before he had given her the strength to resume her duties. She knows now that he will need her strength in return this time. Her steps slow as she leaves the room, deciding to check the place where they had first met. 

 

She can hear the yells from down the hall and her steps slow. She opens and closes the door quietly, listening to him yell from his spot near the end of the brick wall, fist slamming repeatedly into the wall. She watches, tears gathering in her eyes as he winds himself down. When his shoulders slump she steps forward, carefully taking his bloody hand and tugging him a bit. 

 

“I’m here,” she whispers to him, knowing that throughout her entire life those were the words she had always wanted to hear when she was upset. When he turns towards her she drops his hand and stands on her toes, carding her hands through his hair. “I’m here,” she whispers as his eyes find hers in the darkness. He crumbles, taking her with him to the ground. He curls into her, his face pressed into her shoulder as his sobs grow louder, his fingers digging into her back hard enough to bruise but she doesn’t mind as she holds this hulking man to her chest and lets him break down. Lets him grieve, the only sound her breathing and his sobs. 

 

Poe opens the door but pauses, taking in the scene before him and backs back in slowly, shaking his head at the nurse behind him as they back away, returning to their jobs and allowing the other Doctors to have the time needed to process this loss with a semblance of peace.

 

* * *

  
  
  


The first time they meet in the light is joyous.

 

She’s dressed in a flattering blue dress, it clings to her curves in all the places that makes his mouth water and her smile lights up the room as she and Poe take pictures at the head of the room. They’ve finished their Residency and are being honored by the hospital at the yearly gala as being their newest attending physicians, Rey as their Emergency Medicine and Poe in Pediatrics.

 

His mouth is dry as he steps forward after she leaves her colleagues to get something from the bar. “Rey.” He stops her, grabbing her hand gently and turning her to him. “Congratulations. If you ever get bored of doing emergency med I have a place in my practice for someone like you.” He offers up a small bouquet of flowers he had bought for her and Rey smiles, hugging him around the neck. He can’t help but hug her back, giving a soft laugh as he swings her around. Setting her properly on her feet he presses a gentle kiss to her mouth and she responds eagerly her fingers curling in his hair, the other holding her flowers to her chest.

 

Pulling away from him, Rey gives a shy smile, brushing lipstick from Ben’s bottom lip. “I’ve wanted you to do that for two years.”

 

“Me too,” He rumbles, chuckling gently into her hair before more members of the hospital join them, congratulating Rey and asking questions that Ben listens to the answers to as well satisfying his interest of the beautiful doctor in his arms until he can get her in private and really learn her.

  
  
  



End file.
